Alternatives for Sustainable Displacement in Concepción, Chile: Perceptions Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

One of the challenges to achieve sustainability in mobility, especially post-pandemic, is to analyse urban accessibility as a service for people, incorporating perceptions of (in)satisfaction with their displacements. This is possible by considering alternatives that inhabitants declare to improve this perception, expanding the analysis beyond aspects only linked to transportation. This research, applied in the territory of the Collao sector, belonging to the Metropolitan Area of Concepción, which, like other neighbourhoods of the city and the world, suffered a strong crisis of immobility as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, dramatically altering the conditions of accessibility of its inhabitants to basic services. The objective was to integrate the perceived accessibility before and during the pandemic with the (in)satisfaction, systematizing declared alternatives to improve it in both situations. The analysis used social geomarketing, obtaining data with declared surveys. Perceptions show walking and proximity as the main elements influencing satisfaction for both periods. Contrary to this, sidewalks in poor condition and vehicular congestion would be factors of dissatisfaction, added to health elements of the pandemic. Results also show that the alternatives declared to increase satisfaction could be implemented in their usual routes, coinciding with previously detected areas of spatial satisfaction. Conclusions remark that integrating scenarios proposed by people into the urban design is relevant in emergency situations. Fidelizing walking allows reflecting on the reconfiguration of public space with sustainable and satisfactory urban designs post COVID-19.